July 13, 2010

Word on the street is that both oatmeal and dark beer help increase your {milk supply}. Obviously this could mean only one thing... experimental cooking. Jon and I took to the streets, otherwise known as the kitchen, on a mission to create the ultimate milking-Guinness-oatmeal-combo cookies.

...and this, is their story.

Cue the most important part- the guinness. I'm not particularly a dark beer drinker but Jon, oh, how he loves the Guinness. It is holiness in our household. Worship at the feet of thy god, the lord, and do not drip a drop of him on the counter ...like I did.

Pre-cookie making it is vital to pour a glass of stout and let it sit out to lose some of its nitrogen AND TO WARM UP. Do not pour a glass put it back in the fridge. It will make your butter get all weird. Not that I'm speaking from experience... or anything... (Yeah I totally did. It was bad.)

Oh, hello friendly mixer!

Oh, hello all the dry ingredients!

{oats, whole wheat flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon}

Oh, hello all the wet ingredients!

{butter, egg, vanilla, brown sugar, and... the Guinness}

The batter was wet, extremely wet, and not in a particularly sexy way. We did several test batches to figure out how much of all the other ingredients to add to counteract the increased liquid from the beer. Not that I'm complaining about eating extra cookies, because I'm not.

Wet. Globs. Of yum.

This was the first batch. They turned out... odd. The flavor was good but they had a strange ultra-flat consistency. Don't worry, we fixed it in the final version.

While the final batch was baking Jon whipped up (whipped up! HA! Yeah.) some Guinness whipped cream. In order to flavor it you boil the Guinness down to a concentrated syrup, it's very scientific, but very worth it. It has all the sweetness of whipped cream with a bit of the bite of a lovely dark beer.

There they were- the Guinness oatmeal tasties!

They taste like a more rich complex oatmeal cookie. If you aren't crazy about Guinness don't worry, the flavor is pretty subtle.

but I have to say, they were best like this. Duh.

And there you have it! Guinness oatmeal cookies. Yummy and... good for your milk! A little supply boost never hurt anyone. If you have milk that is. If you don't I can almost guarantee you won't start lactating. Probably..

Several hours before, pour a glass of Guinness so it can settle. Leave it out to get warm

Combine first set of ingredients, the "wet" in the mixer. Beat until smooth.

Combine second set of ingredients, the "dry" in a separate bowl and stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients into the mixer one cup at a time, gradually mixing on low. Continue until all ingredients are combined and mixed. The dough will be wetter than standard cookie dough. Do not be alarmed.

Place dough in the fridge (or freezer) for as long as possible. 4-8 hours is best. If you're in a hurry you can go for it earlier but understand that you might get thin weird blobbo cookies. The chilling is pretty important.

Heat the Guinness in a small pan over medium-high heat. Stir to prevent burning and over-boiling. The liquid and alcohol will be cooked off leaving a concentrated Guinness syrup. The process will take about 20 minutes, but be careful, at the final cooking stage when it condenses it will go quickly!

Put the heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, and Guinness syrup in a bowl. If you have a metal bowl use that and chill it in the fridge first, it makes the whipping much faster. (These are the by hand instructions, you can also use your mixer.) Using a stiff whisk, whisk together the ingredients until stiff peaks form. You will know that it is ready when you can turn your bowl upside down and nothing really moves. Magic! Guinness whipped cream! The Guinness does add a bitter aftertaste, so you may want to taste test as you go along to see if you prefer more sugar.